Birders too close to a rare bird--Pella Crossing

[Kathleen Sullivan]

This morning at about 9:00 I was headed to Heron Pond to see the Yellow-crowned Night Heron and witnessed another incident of bad birder behavior.   Two birders in the parking lot were just ahead of me and headed to the North shore.  I was going at it from the south shore and I met an experienced birder who had just seen the bird (within the half hour) and gotten a photo and she volunteered to take me right where she had seen it.  Then from across the pond we saw the two birders I had originally seen at the parking lot crawling down the bank almost to the shoreline right where the bird had been seen.

 

We could not find it again with my scope and her good camera plus another man came up who had also seen it from that spot just before.  We stood there for half an hour and the two were there for quite awhile but the heron did not show obviously driven into the reeds.  Amazingly, some other people who did not appear to be birders but had a camera also crawled down the bank. 

 

Folks, we’ve got to get a handle on this.  Please do not approach birds, play tape, or do anything that will disturb them.  In addition if you see something, say something.  Thank you.  I assure you that if those birders were not on the other side of the pond, they would have gotten some feedback from me!   Sorry for this long post but it’s important.

 

Kathleen “Sully” Sullivan, CFO member, former Board member Boulder Audubon Chapter.

Boulder, CO.

 

Sent from Mail for Windows

 

[Adrian Lakin]

Almost the same thing happened when I was viewing the Yellow-crowned Night-heron at Pella 2 days ago. This other birder was also on the north shore. He didn't crawl all the way down the bank, but got WAY too close to the heron and forced it to retreat into the undergrowth. This "birder" had a camera with a large lens, so he could've got a picture from my vantage point on the south shore, but he obviously wanted the perfect picture. I would've had words with him, but he left before I could do so.

Adrian Lakin,

Mead, CO

[Ted Floyd]

Hey, all.

Here's a somewhat different perspective on flushing birds:

https://www.aba.org/how-to-know-the-birds-no-53-the-situational-ethics-of-seeing-a-gadwall/

Ted Floyd
Lafayette, Boulder County

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[David Suddjian]

Thank you, Ted, for this interesting shift in view on this point. 

I've been thinking lately on my field trips about the disturbance we birders cause to bird activity through our regular everyday birding. Birds flush, or move away, or otherwise interrupt their normal activities as we approach and watch, and point and call out our finds, as we pull up the car to look or get out of the car. At some locations there are multiple and varied sources of human and other disturbance over the course of a day. This is reality, and it is inevitable in the way we do things to find and enjoy birds. Why, I interrupt and flush my feeder birds everytime I go out the front door, but I don't think it harms them much or any. 

I think the key is not to deliberately, unnecessarily and repeatedly press birds so that they move or interrupt their actions. This is most problematic when "rare birds" or others that folks really want to see or "get" are sought after intensely by birders over a period of days. But except for our difficulty in seeing the bird ourselves after it has been disturbed, it is often hard to assess what the actual impact is under normal conditions.  I'm not saying there is no impact, but what exactly is it really? Much birder disturbance goes unappreciated by others in the birding community. Several years ago I helped put a good Ovenbird spot on the map with a hotspot in Deer Creek Canyon in JeffCo. I've since wondered about the birders who go up there to that same stretch of road each May and June and play recordings at the Ovenbirds to try to draw them into view. There are countless occasions like that.

David Suddjian

Ken Caryl Valley

Littleton, CO

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[Deborah Carstensen]

I’m wondering if people are taking the time to educate people doing this. If done in a non-confrontational, friendly manner, peoples choices can be changed by a better understanding of how their behavior affects wildlife.

Obviously it’s not always a good idea to do this, but I find it helpful when I can. I volunteered in Indian peaks wilderness for eight years doing the same thing. Non-confrontational education can make a big difference in peoples behavior. Most people want to do the right thing and a lot of people don’t understand how their behavior affects the environment or the animals . Many will make a different choice next time. ( Starting with a nice chat about how cool the bird is followed by a “we’re you aware…” statement.)

    

     Don’t try to do this if it doesn’t feel right to you but, if it does, please do.

Deb Carstensen, Arapahoe county 

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On Nov 2, 2022, at 7:01 PM, David Suddjian <dsud...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[SeEttaM]

Too much "Whatabout-ism" being preached. It is ridiculous that some keep making excuses for selfish persons who not only unnecessarily disturb some poor bird that ask to be a rarity but interfere with others who are wanted to see the bird also.  Call out these selfish birders or photos, whichever they are.

SeEtta Moss

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[Noelle Nicholson]

Two things to add to the mix: 

1) As far as I understand, for all wildlife, when you force them to run/fly away, they have to use energy that that wouldn’t have had to use otherwise. This is more problematic at certain times of year, such as the end of winter, when they’ve nearly depleted their fat stores (like when a dog chases a deer, for example). For birds, I’m guessing this is less about the season and more about the food source/weather issues of the last few days since they don’t really have fat stores unless they’re migrating. This isn’t something we normally take into account when we’re birding, so maybe this conversation is a good prompt to ask how we can step outside of our species and ask how we nature-lovers can be more empathetic to the daily challenges of the fauna we love. 

2) Birds are used to the baseline disturbance - at Pella, that’s people walking/running/stopping (and sometimes dogs) along the path. Crawling along the bank is not within that baseline and is going to cause distress. Listening to the birds’ calls and the level of alert through the community is another way to gauge one’s impact. 

Noelle Nicholson 

Boulder, CO 

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On Nov 2, 2022, at 22:43, SeEttaM <see...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[David Lawrance]

I like Ted's article. A lot. To add another scenario: a yellow-crowned night heron, an unusual bird for Boulder County but not for the nation, was taking a frustrating first migration break along the shore of a pond in a park in Hygiene. Lots of Colorado birders came to see it. A lifer for a few of them (me.). The bird was lost, taking a few recovery during its first migration. The spot along the shore was quiet, mostly protected, and there was food in the water to eat. A person fishing in a boat near the shore unknowingly approached the bird.  The bird retreated deeply into the weeds, disappointing its many "paparazzi". 

For all the care that I feel for this "rare" bird, I  I must inadvertently flush 1000 red-winged blackbirds, and 2000 starlings, each one a unique creature with sensitivities similar to the precious rare one.  I suspect , rare or not, most birds defensively retreat toward a safe place many times a day because an unexpected movement in the bush might be a coyote, a hawk, an owl, a cat, or a rabid bird-eating human. It is not a perfect survival strategy but it is a helpful one. There is reason not to intentionally flush any  bird, because we just honestly don't know whether it might cause harm. Nevertheless, it happens a lot. We can never be a bird and know the cost of a flush. It might  be  best to never look at a bird when we see one, but to keep moving on. No harm, no fowl. Leave only footprints. And, try to avoid leaving footprints. We just don't really know for sure, do we? But, observation tells us that many kinds of birds, when we approach quietly and slowly,  just go on with their lives. And, it would seem that the common birds, having been flushed, still hang around by the millions.

There are some threatened species that we need to leave alone so that they can better establish themselves into an area, raise their families, return next Spring. I think the park rangers know more about them than most of us because they aren't talking about them. There are the others, the unusual migrants, the ones that we feel good to find, the ones that by chance chose a more pubic place to take respite. Like young yellow-headed night herons. Unfortunate birds, possibly strayed away from the usual migration path, maybe ending up in a desirable wintering ground and maybe not.

This heron in particular should not be carelessly flushed for at least one additional good reason: because we respect other birders, their children and friends. The stories they might tell. Some of them have travelled hours for a chance to view it. The bird has wings. It will fly away soon. Good to enjoy it as long as we can.

David

[Scott Severs]

Note: For Information Purposes Only:  Per resolution 2020-099 Pules and Regulations: it's unlawful to "molest, pursue, or disturb" wildlife on Boulder County Parks and Open Space properties. 

Link: https://bouldercounty.gov/open-space/parks-and-trails/rules-and-regulations/

Violations? Contact their rangers at 303-441-4444. Save this phone number in mobile devices.